UN Security Council votes in favor of anti-settlement resolution, US abstains from vote

Dec. 23, 2016 10:20 P.M. (Updated: Dec. 24, 2016 12:04 P.M.)

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday voted in favor of adopting resolution 2334 that calls on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

The vote, with 14 member states voting in favor and the United States abstaining from the vote, was the first such vote to be held on the Middle East Peace process in eight years, according to the UN.

The resolution’s text, drafted by Egypt alongside Palestine, reportedly demands that Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem" and emphasizes that the establishment of settlements by Israel has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."

The abstention vote by Obama came as a major reversal in American policy, as a similar resolution was vetoed by the US in 2011.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the US Ambassador to the UN said that the US had decided against a veto because the resolution is consistent with US policy on Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, and added that the US decided against voting in favor due to the resolution being too “narrowly focused on settlements,” which would not guarantee peace even if “every single settlement is dismantled.”

"We wouldn’t have let it pass had it not addressed counterproductive actions by the Palestinians ," she was also reported as saying.

Ahead of the resolution’s passing, Egypt had caved under diplomatic pressure from Israel and postponed their proposal to hold a vote at the UN Security Council Thursday evening.

However, New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Senegal, with the support of Palestine, gave Egypt an ultimatum to clarify by midnight whether it planned to call the vote, or they would put the draft resolution to vote themselves, eventually pressuring Egypt to reschedule the vote the following day.

Meanwhile, Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the United States had “abandoned” Israel by abstaining from the vote, according to Haaretz, adding that “the heart aches that after eight years of friendship… and cooperation with Obama, this is his final chord" in the departing Obama administration.

Critics have pointed out that multiple UNSC resolutions condemning Israeli policies in the Palestinian territory have been previously passed, but the lack of political will to enforce such measures has remained clear, with Israeli authorities in 2016 approving thousands of new settler units on occupied Palestinian land and allocating millions of dollars to the expansion of settlements.

Critics have claimed that instead the US has inadvertently encouraged Israel’s settlement enterprise through its consistent inaction over Israel’s violation of international law and its continued support of the Israeli government through inflated military aid packages.